


Till The End Of The Line

by that_one_whoopee_cushion



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Fix-It of Sorts, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_one_whoopee_cushion/pseuds/that_one_whoopee_cushion
Summary: *Story Contains Endgame Spoilers*What if that ring on Steve's finger wasn't there because of Peggy.





	Till The End Of The Line

**Author's Note:**

> So this story came into existence because I was so out of it by the end of Endgame that I didn't notice all the foreshadowing to Steve ending up with Peggy. Because of this, the first thing to pop into my head when I saw Steve's ring was "Holy fuck, he actually went back and married Bucky." And now you have this overly sappy thing I've created.  
> Yes, I realize there is a million of these already, I just had to get my feelings out there about this.

Sam grinned wolfishly at Steve, “You wanna tell me about her?”

 

With a wry smile on his face, Steve looked up at Sam, "No, I don't think I will.”

 

Steve kept the smile on his face as he looked out at the lake in front of him. And Bucky felt like his heart was going to rip out of his chest. He had known what was going to happen. Of course he knew. Steve had told him about his plan before he stepped into that time machine. If Steve could go back to right after the other him crashed that plane into the water, if he could stop the war and come out of it alive, he was going to do it.

 

Bucky let him go. Because isn’t that how it is? When you truly love someone you put their happiness first because as long as they are happy, so are you? At least, that’s how Bucky loved. So that’s what he did; he let Steve go. Bucky let the man he love go back to his true love, to Peggy, because as long as Steve was happy, so was he.

 

 _‘Till the end of the line.’_ Bucky shook his head and threw a quick glance at the older Steve sitting next to him before he turned back to staring at the lake. He had thought “the end of the line” was Steve going back in time. That Steve would stay there and that would be it for them. Yes, he knew Steve would come back with the shield for Sam, but he had been honestly surprised to see Steve show up at the age he was. As much as it filled him with joy to see Steve finally the age he should be, or well as close to the age he should be considering the serum that was coursing through his veins, it still made part of him ache.

 

The part he had had kept buried for so long, the part that was no longer hidden in shame, the part that loved Steve more than anything else in the universe, broke a little to see Steve so happy about settling down with the love of his life. It knew that the love of Steve’s life wasn’t Bucky, and it would never be.

 

But of course that part also shone a bit brighter because, damn it, Steve was happy. He finally got the change to settle down. His whole life he had fought for people to live, his mom, himself, his fellow soldiers, the whole world, and even the entire universe. But he went back and fixed it, he got his chance at a normal life. He got the one thing almost every person dreams to have—a second chance to do life over with the knowledge of what could happen.

 

Bucky was shaken from his thoughts by a firm hand on his right forearm and he turned to look at Steve. He was met with a warm smile.

 

“Hey, Buck.”

 

“Steve,” and Bucky smiled because he couldn’t help it; he got to talk to Steve at least one more time.

 

“Sit next to me, will you?”

 

The two of them sat there for a few minutes in silence, letting the warm sun soak into their tired bones. Bucky let out a sigh and turned to face Steve.

 

“Well are you going to tell _me_ about her?”

 

Steve’s laugh was the sun melting the ice of Bucky’s regrets, as it had always done.

 

Bucky smiled and looked back at the lake again, sinking down a bit into the bench, “I’m sure Peggy's smile was great on the wedding day, and I bet her smile was even better when you finally to—“ and that’s when Bucky was hit, literally, with the fact that Steve may not have the body of a 20 year old anymore, but he sure could still punch like not a day had gone by.

 

Bucky laughed and rubbed his arm, “But seriously, I’m happy for you Steve. Really, I am.”

 

And when Bucky looked at Steve this time he saw a hint of sadness, even longing, in his smile. He recognized the latter look from all the times he had seen it on Steve’s face when he would look at that picture of Peggy.

 

“What’s wrong, Steve?” The smile dropped from Bucky’s face, but he kept his voice relaxed.

 

“I—It’s nothing Bu—“

 

“Bullshit. I know you Steve, so tell me, what’s wrong?”

 

Steve didn’t say anything for a few minutes. So Bucky did what he had always done best with Steve, he waited.

 

“It—It wasn’t Peggy, Buck,” Steve swallowed and Bucky just blinked, “She, well I got that dance with her. We finally had our dance. It was in this house she had been staying in, and it was great and all, but, it didn’t work out. She must have known something was up, that I wasn’t the same man who had gone down in that plane. And she tried to love the new me Buck, god did she try, but we fell apart.”

 

Bucky was surprised at how well Steve was handling this considering he had been in love with Peggy for so long. But then again, Steve made it sound like he had been more in love with the idea of her than actually Peggy herself.

 

“It was then I realized it Bucky, I realized I hadn’t been in love with Peggy Carter, but the Peggy Carter I had made in my mind.”

 

_Bingo, one point for Bucky._

 

“Once I left I realized I had a mission, I needed to find you.”

 

Bucky whipped his head to look at Steve. How the hell did Steve getting married to some broad have anything to do with him, unless… Bucky shook his head, there was no way, it wasn’t even legal back then so he wasn’t going to let any part of him entertain that thought.

 

“It wasn’t hard, and in the process I stopped Hydra, with the help of Howard and Peggy, from ever being able to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.. I don’t know how the hell I did it, but I did. And I found you, before you were too far gone. You had fought so hard Buck, so hard, I—“

 

Steve stopped and let out a breath and turned to Buck with a smile, “When I held your fragile body in my arms as the plane brought us back to the base I was hit with another realization, I hadn’t been in love with Peggy, because I was in love with you, James.”

 

Bucky let out a breathe he hadn’t even realized he had been holding, “You’re shitting me right?”

 

Steve just let out a laugh and placed his warm hand on Bucky’s thigh, “No, I’m not shitting you. Bucky it, it was the biggest moment of my life, but it also wasn’t because I realized I had loved you for so long that there was nothing different about that moment than any other moment we had had together. At first I didn’t tell you, since you were recovering for a few months. I first told you about what happened in the future, where I came from. And you took it well, just as well as I knew you would. A week later I told you that I love you. I didn’t wait, I couldn’t wait, not with the knowledge that you felt the same way.”

 

If Bucky had been drinking he for sure would have choke.

 

Steve laughed, “You’re more obvious than you think, especially when you sleep talk.”

 

“Fuck you.”

 

Steve simply beamed at him like he had hung the moon, and that’s when Bucky knew for sure that Steve wasn’t lying.

 

“After that we spent a few years helping S.H.I.E.L.D start up, but then we retired early on. We chose a nice place in the suburbs of New York, a small apartment. We had a dog named Sam, ” Bucky let out an actual laugh at that and gave Steve a smile that he hoped said, ‘you’re a loyal dumbass but I love you for it.’, “Shut up. Anyway, a couple years later S.H.I.E.L.D had found a little boy who needed a family so they came to us asking if we would take him. We were both scared shitless at first, but in the end we said yes. And I've never regretted it for a second.”

 

Steve paused for a moment and smiled down at his lap, “His first grandkid was born about, oh what would it be now, 5 years ago in your time? But yeah, on our five year anniversary we got each other the silver rings.”

 

Bucky caught the glimpse of silver flashing in the sunlight as Steven rubbed his ring absent-mindedly. His heart jumped up at the thought that somewhere out there another version of him had a matching one.

 

Steve continued, “Even though we couldn’t be public about us, we got them because we could still show the world we had someone who meant enough to us that we were willing to give the entire rest of our lives to being with them. That we gave our life for that person. The rest of our life sure as hell wasn’t easy, but I had you, and that Buck, was all I could truly ask for.”

 

He made eye contact with Bucky and ever fiber in Bucky seemed to light up under his gaze.

 

“I’m sorry,” Steve swallowed, “I should have came back to you here, to the one who knows me best, but I couldn’t just leave the past you with the knowledge that I loved you back. I was torn Bucky… And I made a choice… I hope, I hope you understand.”

 

Bucky placed his right hand on top of Steve's and smiled, “I understand, Steve. I’ll always trust you to make the right decision.”

 

Steve smiled at Bucky, “Till the end of the line?”

 

“Till the end of the line.”


End file.
